I snort.
Trudy wheezes beside Brody.
Jakob says something, and the referee’s cheeks turn pink.
Corey gasps. “Do not use that voice on me. I have a whistle and very little self-respect.”
Brody nods gravely. “Use the whistle, ref. I like a man in charge.”
“Yellow card,” Corey squeaks.
“For what?” Brody snaps.
“For giving me a hard-on.”
I can’t stop laughing at this stage.
On the field, the referee points Jakob back into position. He turns, jogging away.
Corey sighs dreamily. “There he goes. The reason I can never again referee while seated.”
Brody sits back, smug. “And that is why I don’t need pickup lines.”
We’re drawing too much attention to ourselves. Corey breaks character first, snorting so hard he chokes. Brody holds Jakob’s deadpan expression for another few seconds before it collapses, and they’re both gone, wheezing, shoving each other on the bench behind me. Trudy has her hand pressed to her mouth, shoulders shaking, and I’m doubled over, my stomach cramping from laughing. On the field, Jakob is still gesticulating at the actual referee.
The game surges on. Both Alphas have me bracketed, Corey’s arm draped behind my shoulders, Brody’s thigh warm against mine, and for stretches of time, the jealousy quiets and I’m just an Omega surrounded by her Alphas.
Then I catch Trudy studying the three of us, not with jealousy but with what I can only describe as grief. The ache of a woman watching the life she walked away from being lived by someone else.
The guilt sits in my chest alongside the possessiveness, and neither surrenders. “I’m gonna grab coffee,” I say, standing. “Who’s in?”
Both hands go up. Before either can say anything, Trudy is on her feet. “I’ll come.” The smile she gives me is soft. “If that’s okay.”
“Yeah, of course.” And we start moving.
Corey catches my hand as I step past him. Squeezes once. Mouths,I adore you,with a grin. I squeeze back and nod.
Trudy and I cross the grass, weaving through clusters of spectators, the field spreading beside us with its whistles and roars. The food stand sits at the far end, a converted trailer with a service window and a chalkboard menu. The line is short.
For thirty seconds, neither of us speaks. Our shoulders are almost touching. She smells faintly soured at the edges, the telltale bitterness of bond sickness that hasn’t fully faded.
“I owe you an apology,” she says.
“You don’t?—”
“Yeah, I do.” She keeps her gaze forward, her voice steady but thin. “If I’d known they had someone, I would have gone anywhere else. I promise you that. Showing up on their doorstep, looking the way I did?” She lets out a laugh that carries zero humor. “Not exactly the entrance I’d have chosen.”
I order four lattes at the window and step aside.
“I appreciate you saying that,” I tell her. “And I’m not angry at you. I’m just trying to manage the intensity of everything. What I have with them is… new. And enormous. I’m still figuring out how to hold it without crushing it.”
“They’re a force.” Something changes in her face, a softening. “All three of them at once is the most intoxicating and terrifying thing I’ve ever experienced. They made me feel safe in a way nobody else ever had.” She licks her lips. “Which made it so much worse when I left.”
I don’t have words because if she hadn’t left, I would never have met my scent-match Alphas.
She’s quiet for a moment. Around us, people drift past with coffees and hot dogs, kids chase each other behind the stand, and someone’s dog barks at a seagull. Ordinary life, flowing around two Omegas having a conversation that is anything but.
“My first Alpha marked me,” she says finally, which I already knew, but I listen to her. “Kristian claimed me young, bonded me, and then decided I wasn’t interesting enough to keep. Dumped and kicked me out of our home. When the bond sickness hit, I thought I was dying. Your body doesn’t understand the difference between rejection and death. It just screams.” She wipes her eyes. “When those three Alphas took me in, I thought a new pack would override the pull. It didn’t. The bond to Kristian kept dragging me back, and eventually I wasn’t strong enough to resist it.”
